Create well-structured OKRs for product teams, startups

OKR Builder Skill

Write ambitious, measurable OKRs that connect product work to company strategy. Avoid vanity metrics, output-focused key results, and objectives that sound like task lists.

Reads from / Writes to the Brain

If a professional-brain (brain/) exists, ground in it instead of re-asking for what you already know:

• Read first: context.md (metric definitions), knowledge/strategy.md (where the product is going), and any open hypotheses/. Run python3 ../professional-brain/scripts/brain_query.py ./brain "<objective theme>" and carry each fact's provenance tag through — don't set a key result off a [hunch] as if it were [data].
• 📥 Propose to the Brain: after producing, propose logging the chosen objectives + KR targets as a decisions/ record (the period's bet) and any new metric definitions to knowledge/, each provenance-tagged. Show them, get a yes, then write with ../professional-brain/scripts/brain_write.py … --commit (append-only, dry-run by default).

Working from a brief

You will often get a short brief without every detail (no baselines, no exact numbers). Always deliver a complete, specific OKR set anyway — do not stop to ask questions and do not leave bracketed placeholders like [target]. Where a baseline or number is missing, infer a realistic value from the brief and the domain, and mark it (assumed — confirm). A clearly-labelled assumed baseline (e.g. "activation 40% (assumed) → 60%") is always better than a blank or an invented-as-fact figure.

Deeper Materials

• references/bad-okr-gallery.md — six realistic bad OKRs with diagnosis and rewrite (disguised roadmap, unfalsifiable objective, sandbagging, uncontrollable KR, metric zoo, missing guardrail), ending in a 5-question diagnostic. Use it when reviewing existing OKRs — match against the gallery before writing feedback.
• templates/okr-worksheet.md — a fill-in worksheet whose columns enforce the quality gates (baseline source, drift test, control test, guardrail) plus a pre-committed quarter-end scoring rubric. Offer it when a team wants to draft OKRs themselves.

OKR Fundamentals

Objective: Qualitative, inspiring, time-bound. Answers "where are we going?" Key Result: Quantitative, specific, measurable. Answers "how will we know we've arrived?"

The Test for a Good KR

• Can it be scored 0.0–1.0 at the end of the period?
• Does it measure outcome, not output? ("Revenue from new customers increased by 30%" not "Launch 3 features")
• Is it ambitious but achievable? (Aim for 70% attainment as the gold standard)
• Is it within the team's control?

Common OKR Anti-Patterns to Flag and Fix

Anti-Pattern	Example	Better Version
Task masquerading as KR	"Launch onboarding redesign"	"New user activation rate increases from 42% to 65%"
Vanity metric	"Get 10,000 app downloads"	"30-day retention for new users reaches 40%"
Binary KR	"Ship API v2"	"API v2 adopted by 80% of active integrations"
Too many KRs	6+ per objective	Max 3–4 KRs per objective
No baseline	"Improve NPS"	"NPS increases from 32 to 50"

Always flag anti-patterns and offer a rewrite.

Output Format

[Quarter] OKRs — [Team/Product Area]

---

Objective 1: [Inspiring, qualitative statement]

Why this matters: [1–2 sentence strategic context]

#	Key Result	Baseline	Target	Measurement Method
KR1	[Measurable outcome]	[Current state]	[Target]	[How measured]
KR2	[Measurable outcome]	[Current state]	[Target]	[How measured]
KR3	[Measurable outcome]	[Current state]	[Target]	[How measured]

Owner: [Name/Role] Check-in cadence: Weekly

---

Repeat for each objective. Recommend 2–4 objectives per team per quarter.

Scoring Guide to Include

At quarter end, score each KR:

• 0.7–1.0 = Excellent (0.7 is the "sweet spot" — if all KRs score 1.0, they weren't ambitious enough)
• 0.4–0.6 = Made progress but missed
• 0.0–0.3 = Missed — needs retrospective discussion

Inputs (infer any not provided — label assumptions)

• Team or individual the OKRs are for
• Quarter and year
• Company or product North Star metric (OKRs should connect to this — if not given, infer a plausible one and label it (assumed))
• Top 3 priorities or goals for this quarter (rough notes are fine)
• Any existing OKRs to review or improve (optional)

Guidelines

• Connect OKRs to the company/product North Star; if it isn't given, infer a plausible one and label it (assumed) rather than asking
• Recommend no more than 3 objectives per team per quarter
• If user provides output-based goals, always reframe as outcomes
• Include a "health check" section flagging which KRs have no current baseline data
• Remind user: OKRs are not performance reviews — they should be ambitious enough that missing them is okay

Scoring Rubric (0–40)

Score any output of this skill before handing it over; 32+ is ship-quality.

Dimension	0	5	10
Outcome orientation	KRs are a shipped-feature task list ("launch X", "complete Y")	Mostly outcomes, but one or more KRs are outputs or binary ship/no-ship	Every KR is an outcome metric scorable 0.0–1.0 by degree of achievement
Baseline & measurability	No baselines or measurement methods; KRs cannot be scored at quarter end	Targets present but several baselines missing or unsourced, with no health-check flag	Every KR has baseline, target, and measurement method; missing data is flagged in a health check with a plan to instrument
Ambition calibration	Targets are last quarter's trendline (sandbagged) or pure fantasy with no path	Some stretch, but nobody could say what a 0.7 score looks like	Calibrated so 0.7 attainment is the expected good quarter; sandbagged proposals and moonshots are called out and corrected
Strategic focus & control	No link to a North Star; 5+ objectives or KR zoo; KRs depend on other teams' work	Ladders loosely to strategy but objectives are overloaded or one KR fails the control test	≤3 objectives with ≤4 KRs each, every objective explicitly ladders to the North Star, and every KR is within the team's control

Quality Checks

• Each KR is measurable with a baseline and target
• No output-based KRs (no "launch X" or "complete Y")
• Maximum 4 KRs per objective
• OKRs connect to the company or product North Star
• Ambitious enough that 0.7 attainment is the expected score

Anti-Patterns

• Do not accept output-based key results — any KR phrased as "launch X" or "complete Y" must be rewritten as an outcome with a baseline and target
• Do not write OKRs without asking for the company or product North Star — OKRs disconnected from the strategic context are just a goal-setting exercise
• Do not write more than 4 KRs per objective — too many KRs dilute focus and make scoring ambiguous at quarter end
• Do not use binary KRs (ship/don't ship) — every KR must be scorable on a 0.0–1.0 scale based on degree of achievement
• Do not skip the health check section on baselines — OKRs without current baselines cannot be scored objectively at quarter end